“Veterans Helping Veterans” this holiday season

By: EVELYN LONG -
Their project could be sub titled “Vet­er­ans Help­ing Vet­er­ans.” Five Mor­row County Vet­eran orga­ni­za­tions joined forces to bring Christ­mas cheer to vet­er­ans who resid­ing in or are patients in three Mor­row County Nurs­ing Home facil­i­ties.
For more than 15 years mem­bers of AMVETS Post 87 deliv­ered bas­kets of fruit to those vet­er­ans at Christ­mas.
Six years ago, they decided to do some­thing dif­fer­ent. “They were receiv­ing fruit as gifts from other groups and orga­ni­za­tions so we agreed to seek some­thing dif­fer­ent,” said Mike McK­in­ney, cur­rent trustee, the post’s Past First Vice Com­man­der, and chap­lain for Johnsville Amer­i­can Legion Post 754.
Shirley Brady, third vice pres­i­dent of Aux­il­iary Unit 87 and wife of Carl Brady, First Vice Com­man­der with Post 87, inquired of the nurs­ing homes what would be an appro­pri­ate gift. “Sweats,” was the reply. So a full set of sweats with socks have become the gift of choice. “We got them from Drug Mart where they were gra­cious to give us a dis­count,” said McK­innney. Join­ing in the spon­sor­ship and pre­sen­ta­tion are the Mor­row County Joint Vet­er­ans Coun­cil, VFW Post 8054, Johnsville Post 754 and Marengo Post 710. Each sweat suit is gift wrapped as is each pair of socks and a hand cre­ated Christ­mas card is placed with each gift by the ladies of Aux­il­iary Unit 87 who then sign them.
A box of candy is also given. “We give sugar free candy in those cases where the vet­eran is dia­betic,” said McK­in­ney.
Each of the 38 vet­er­ans in Mor­row Manor, Chester­ville; Ben­ning­ton Glen, Marengo and Wood­side Vil­lage, Mount Gilead, received a sweat suit, a pair of socks, a bas­ket of fruit and a box of candy when rep­re­sen­ta­tives of these vet­eran orga­ni­za­tions trav­eled the county on Decem­ber 21. In addi­tion to McK­in­ney, oth­ers assist­ing included Duane Rine­hart, past com­man­der of Johnsville Post 754; Don Obrian, com­man­der of Johnsville Post 754; Burns Wiley, a mem­ber of Marengo Post 710. And Roy Dietz, com­man­der of Post 710.
Receiv­ing the gifts were the fol­low­ing vet­er­ans in Mor­row Manor: John Youst, Wal­ter Smith and Helen Bogyfky; Ben­ning­ton Glen: Carl Ander­son, Ken­neth Baird, William Claude Bald­win, Thur­man Balsinger, Orland Green, Paul Hoet­cel, James Hol­brook, Ray­mon McGrother, Robert Pick­ett, Carl Rip­ple, Edward Rogers, Ken­neth Ruth, Michael Spear­man, George Rid­miller, and Robert McLaugh­lin; Wood­side Vil­lage Care Cen­ter: Gilbert Mul­lenix, Norma Doyle, Bill Hack­worth, Olen Hill, Eugene Shaf­fer, Ron Komer, Bob Chap­man, Ron Squibb, Robin Askew, Ed Shrout, John Ten– nant, James Free­man, Her­bert Par­sons, Ger­ald Jones and Wal­ter Anach.
These men are vet­er­ans of World War II, the Korean, and/or the Viet­nam War.

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Jan 9 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.